<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Backwards by lunarpaddle</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26050768">Backwards</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunarpaddle/pseuds/lunarpaddle'>lunarpaddle</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dark, Divergent as of 7x09, Gen, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 10:02:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,117</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26050768</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunarpaddle/pseuds/lunarpaddle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"“I’m, uh – I mean, I’m not your big sister, but that might actually be the best way to think of me in the long term? I don’t really know what other kinda relationship we’d end up having at this point, but, well. I’m you from the future, actually.”</p><p>Skye sits in silence for a few seconds, pondering this. As an explanation, it made possibly even more sense (she had been wondering how her super-secret big sister would know about her imaginary friend), and it hardly seemed outside the realms of possibility, given the existence of gods, and aliens, and all that jazz. The question was - </p><p>“What kinda future? Like, is this a like, you’re stuck in the past by accident kinda deal, or there’s an apocalypse you gotta prevent, or what?”</p><p>Future-her actually smiles at this, broad and toothy and familiar.</p><p>“You see, this is exactly why I came to talk to you first. I knew I wouldn’t kick up a fuss.""</p><p>The time loops end a bit differently, and Daisy is stuck figuring out what on earth she's supposed to do about any of it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>89</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The loops run, over and over, and she watches her friends die, over and over – neither her nor Coulson can seem to stop using it as a weird metaphor for like, their entire lives, but it is kinda appropriate.</p><p>The loops run, and run, and run, and she doesn’t think there’ll be another one now. They’re out of time. Everyone’s dead around her, even Coulson, but she’s finally found – something. A video clip stored in Enoch’s brain – they all died getting it out, but Deke had been able to hook it up to the Zephyr’s systems with his final moments. Here and now, staring oblivion in the face, she regretted not appreciating Deke enough, not appreciating them all enough. </p><p>It’s Fitz’s face on the screen, looking down at her, gaunt and bloody. She didn’t appreciate him enough, either – not that she got much of a chance to know this Fitz, the one who didn’t cut her open, the one who’d never gotten to marry Jemma.</p><p>“This is – well, it’s a backup plan for a backup plan for a backup plan, but with the fate of the universe at stake you can’t be too bloody careful, right? If you’re watching this, I’m dead – well, I’m dead anyway, actually, but that’s not really the point is it? If you’re watching this, I’m dead, and so is Enoch, and he’s supposed to protect Jemma with his life so she’s probably dead too. Everyone who had the plan anywhere in their head is dead, anyone who knew how to work time travel is dead, and any chance of setting things back the way they were is dead with us.”</p><p>Jesus. It makes a morbid kind of sense, she supposes. Everyone else is dead, why wouldn’t Fitz be?</p><p>“But there’s still a chance. We equipped the Zephyr to handle a trip through a time vortex – it would crush any normal time-ship, but we got our hands on some vibranium, put it through a flux-repetitive – okay, not the point, the point is that if you start repeatedly jumping at shorter and shorter intervals, you should be able to make a jump back well into the true chronological past, before Chronyca-2 was even destroyed, before any of this ever even happened. You won’t need to worry about changing things then, but you will need to deal with any doubles, you don’t want – “</p><p>Daisy is still hysterically laughing when the tell-tale rattling amps up one last time, and the Zephyr jumps.</p><p>---</p><p>The date is May 5th, 2012.</p><p>The Battle of New York happened yesterday, and Daisy still hasn’t decided what she’s supposed to do with her friends' bodies.</p><p>Coulson could theoretically be repaired, if she could fix the ship up a little and work out how any of that worked. Enoch, too.</p><p>She has half a mind to storm the Guest House and resurrect the rest of them. Or at least Jemma, so she could have somebody around who knew anything about anything.</p><p>Daisy doesn’t know how to fix up the ship, or work the Chronicom repair mechanisms, and S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers are both at the peak of their powers right now so storming the Guest House would be a suicide run. Also, there would be another Coulson there, who didn’t even know her, and that would be weird.</p><p>The Zephyr is cloaked, which is something. Emergency crash cloaking mechanism apparently – sensible given the mission was originally to avoid any alteration to the timeline, and incredibly useful for her right now. They’d – she’d – crashed somewhere in the Great Salt Lake Desert in Utah (which she knew because her phone was working again and it had location services), so nobody was likely to literally run into the ship anytime soon.</p><p>She sits perched on the stairs, eyes locked on the bodies of her friends, and wonders what the fuck she is actually going to do.</p><p>---</p><p>Okay. There wasn’t a plan, but there were – priorities.</p><p>Priority 0: Refrigerate her organic friends’ corpses. This was achieved using the containment pod – if there was anything she knew her way around, it was that fucking containment pod, she programmed that shit herself, and it had an inbuilt icing system in case of prisoners with fire-based abilities.</p><p>Priority 1: Find herself. Her life super – sucks? Sucked? – right now, and the way things were going there might not be a convenient Bus team to come adopt her, and if she knew anything about her younger self it was that she’d totally be up for this kinda weird-ass stuff.</p><p>Priority 2: Afterlife. S.H.I.E.L.D. was still infested with Hydra, she wouldn’t trust Fury with jack-shit anyway, and the Avengers were 10 tonnes of weird pseudo-family drama she wouldn’t go near with a ten-foot pole, but she still needed some kind of power base. She knew the players in Afterlife, knew what everyone’s deal was even better now having met Jiaying before the incident, and she was pretty confident she could get them on-side.</p><p>Priority 3 – well, Daisy had gotten to priority 3, asked herself what else she needed to do to achieve her goals (she still remembered some stuff from the books she’d looked at online when she was Director for like, all of 5 minutes), and realised she had absolutely no clue what her goals were. What was she even supposed to be doing here? Preventing things going as incredibly ridiculously terribly as they did? That would involve, what – preventing Chronyca-2 from ever getting blown up in the first place? Somehow dealing with Izel before she even got to Earth? That was – dealing with Hydra and Hive pre-emptively seemed simple compared to that.</p><p>Priority 3, Daisy decided, was getting some version of Jemma and some version of Fitz into a room together and making them tell her what to do, and until that was a possibility she was going to stick to more achievable things.</p><p>So, Priority 1. Recruit…herself.</p><p>This was going to be terrible.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She cannot believe someone got past her firewalls.</p><p>And not like, her standard ones – her good ones! Her best ones, even! You weren’t supposed to be able to get past those without being in an exact location that she hadn’t disclosed to anyone, and yeah, sure, anyone could go there if they wanted, but they shouldn’t be able to figure it out! </p><p>She resolved to an even higher standard of paranoia in future. No more using locations that meant something to her – she was just gonna stick the unlock point at like, some random place in the sky or something.</p><p>Anyway. Someone had gotten past her personal firewalls, and top of that, they'd had the fucking balls to leave her a message asking to meet! She didn’t know who this person thought they were kidding, but there was no way they were meeting with someone that potentially dangerous. No fucking way.</p><p>No, Skye was going to her most secure safehouse, the one in New York that even Miles didn’t know about, and she was going to lock the entire place down for an entire week, rebuild her entire security system, and then set herself to the task of getting back at whoever this asshole was. </p><p>Nobody hacked her and got away with it.</p><p>---</p><p>Okay, okay, new level of paranoia. Base assumption, whoever hacked her is omniscient and all powerful and knew everything she was going to do before she did it. They knew where her safehouse was, they knew she’d go to that specific one, they knew how to get in and did so without leaving a trace apart from a single handwritten note that revealed they also knew the name of her childhood imaginary friend that she had literally never ever told anyone about ever.</p><p>Working from this level of paranoia, she had decided that it probably was best to go meet this person at the café they left an address for, because who knew what they’d do otherwise.</p><p>She’s sitting alone at the table for a while – 10 minutes turns to 20, turns to half an hour. Skye wonders how long she has to wait, to appease the whims of this capricious god – wait, holy shit, gods were so totally real now, it could actually be a god! Was there like, a Norse god of hacking or something? </p><p>Another half an hour into fantasising about herself as a Valkyrie serving the Norse goddess of hacking (she’d have really cool wings), someone finally sits down opposite her.</p><p>“Sorry I’m late,” she says, “it turns out the Zephyr doesn’t actually have like, infinite energy, so I had to get my hands on some Gravitonium to power it. Not actually that hard, when you know where it’s gonna be dug up before it happens. Hi, I’m – “</p><p>“My big sister?” Skye gasps, completely failing to keep the hope out of her voice. This woman – wow, she looks just like her! Her hair is shorter, and she’s definitely a fair bit older, and she’s got some really cool looking scars, but – this couldn’t be a coincidence, right? And like, obviously the only person who could out-hack her would be her super-secret big sister so good at hacking she’d never even left a trace of her existence – </p><p>The woman is giving Skye - No, giving the wall behind Skye a mildly concerning blank look. She takes a few deep breaths, in and out, and Skye could swear she winces every time she breathes out, but then she finally looks back down.</p><p>“I’m, uh – I mean, I’m not your big sister, but that might actually be the best way to think of me in the long term? I don’t really know what other kinda relationship we’d end up having at this point, but, well. I’m you from the future, actually.”</p><p>Skye sits in silence for a few seconds, pondering this. As an explanation, it made possibly even more sense (she had been wondering how her super-secret big sister would know about her imaginary friend), and it hardly seemed outside the realms of possibility, given the existence of gods, and aliens, and all that jazz. The question was - </p><p>“What kinda future? Like, is this a like, you’re stuck in the past by accident kinda deal, or there’s an apocalypse you gotta prevent, or what?”</p><p>Future-her actually smiles at this, broad and toothy and familiar.</p><p>“You see, this is exactly why I came to talk to you first. I knew I wouldn’t kick up a fuss. Alright, so – “</p><p>The explanation begins, and doesn’t stop for a very long time.</p><p>---</p><p>“That was the lite version?” Skye exclaims as they make their way back to the safe-house.</p><p>“Yeah, I mean, I skipped over a bunch of the personal drama, because with any luck it’ll never be relevant for this you, and I really breezed over some stuff that will be super easy to prevent this time around, like the Framework. That was just like, the essentials, really.” Daisy replies (After a brief discussion Skye told Daisy she was fine with her keeping her name – she liked Skye, and with any luck she’d also get to keep her parents alive this time around, so there wouldn’t be any need for remembrance).</p><p>“Huh,” Skye says. “Alright, then. So when do I get the superpowers?”</p><p>“When you’re ready,” Daisy laughs, “the way it should have been. I don’t know that I can match up to May when it comes to your training, but I know all the most important stuff for controlling your powers, so I should be able to get you pretty prepared at least for that.”</p><p>“Are we gonna, um, go find your friends in this time?” </p><p>“Ah,” Daisy winces. “So, uh – well actually, I still have their corpses, and it might technically be possible to resurrect them? It’s not very pleasant though, and I’m not sure about the ethics, so maybe. I should probably at least go give Fitzsimmons a kick on the ass to get together sooner this time.”</p><p>“You should probably kill Ward too,” Skye says. What she had heard about him had been horrific, and by the way Daisy had glanced nervously around and zoned out talking about him, she gathered that he’d probably done even more horrific stuff to her personally.</p><p>“Yeah,” Daisy sighs, “but that’s bundled in with the whole stopping Hydra deal. He’s not actually that significant of a threat on a larger scale, he just kinda happened to be the shitty ultra-skilled mal-adjusted Hydra Agent we got stuck with dealing with.”</p><p>“If you say so,” Skye replies, sceptical. “I’m just saying, it sounds like there were a whole bunch of times you could have killed him, but didn’t think it was super high priority, and then it totally fucked you over like multiple times.”</p><p>Daisy turns to give her a look as she opens the door to the safe-house.</p><p>“You shouldn’t be this murderous yet,” Daisy says. “It took me at least 5 years to be cool with killing people that hadn’t actually done anything terribly wrong yet just because I knew they would one day.”</p><p>“That’s weirdly specific, Daisy.” </p><p>“I’m just saying, if you ever meet a Malick? Shoot first, ask questions later.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"The problem is gonna be getting to Afterlife," Daisy says. "I really don't wanna walk from the nearest town, that's gonna take forever, but if we show up in a jet that's our chances of being trusted shot to all hell."</p><p>"What about that Gordon guy you were talking about?" Skye asks. "Didn't he bring you there last time?"</p><p>"They were looking for me last time," she replies. "I tried calling his name this time, but - nothing. I'm not sure what I even register as, to him."</p><p>"Oh, do you think we have like, the same soul-signature or something?" Skye says, bouncing up and down in her seat. "That would be so cool! We could do like, cool stealth stuff - "</p><p>"I don't think soul-signatures are a thing, Skye," Daisy says. It's still weird calling someone else that. "Not ruling it out, though. Not in this universe."</p><p>"Oh," Skye says, slumping back down. Daisy doesn't quite know what to do with the kid. She's - well, she's obviously very happy to A: have at least one person who was something resembling family to her and B: be on the kind of exciting mission she'd always dreamed of, but Daisy was sure there must be some other stuff going on in there. Daisy had tried to cool it with all the traumatic things that had happened to her, but she couldn't hide it all - surely Skye must have some kinda feelings about that?</p><p>Or maybe that was just Daisy's own bias showing. Just because she couldn't imagine ever being free of all the awful things that had happened didn't mean this new version of her couldn't shrug off the idea of them.</p><p>Regardless, she thinks Skye will probably feel differently when she's met Jiaying. No way that was gonna go down without a hitch.</p><p>"I think our best shot is the diviner," Daisy says. "I don't want to use it, but if we take it to the temple, activate it in an empty room - I'm pretty sure Jiaying was notified of that last time."</p><p>"So we're stealing from S.H.I.E.L.D.?!" Skye exclaims. "God, my future self is so rad."</p><p>---</p><p>This, more or less, is how she finds herself cornered in a S.H.I.E.L.D. base, guns pointed at her en mass. </p><p>"You know," she says, "If I could just talk to your superior, I'm sure we could clear this up."</p><p>"Are you going to die?" Skye asks frantically in her ear. "Please don't die, oh god, that would be so lame - "</p><p>"Is that so?" says Bobbi Morse, stepping out through the pack of guards. "Go on then. Clear it up."</p><p>Well. That was - she could do something with that.</p><p>"Oh, Bobbi, hi," she says, stalling for time. "I'm - uh - a friend of Lance's?"</p><p>"That so," Bobbi says, glaring at her. "Don't see how that means I shouldn't shoot you."</p><p>"Oh come on," Daisy says, "You don't mean that. It's like a rollercoaster, right? You'll be back in line to do it again soon enough."</p><p>In a flash Bobbi has her pinned against the wall. That - was probably a mistake.</p><p>"Who the fuck do you think you are," she growls.</p><p>"Please don't die," Skye says in her ear.</p><p>"As much as I'm enjoying the whole, playing out my vague fantasies from the entire time I've known you thing - "</p><p>"Ew! Daisy!" squeaks her earpiece.</p><p>"- I'm really gonna need you to get off of me. I'm genuinely a friend of Lance, and I'm a friend of yours too - you just don't remember."</p><p>"That's gonna have to be a hard no," Bobbie replies. "Travers, Ellis, take her into custody."</p><p>"Welp," Daisy says, "Guess it's gonna be the hard way. Sorry in advance - this is gonna hurt like a bitch."</p><p>Bobbi glances down at her hands, cupped together as a ball of energy grows between them, just a fraction of a second too late.</p><p>The world explodes.</p><p>---</p><p>"Did you have to hurt Bobbi?" Skye asks as they try to navigate the temple, this time without a map. "She seemed nice."</p><p>"Uh huh? Nice, is she?" Daisy asks, smirking back at her younger self.</p><p>"What - I mean - not like that!"</p><p>There are definitely some advantages to meeting a younger version of you. Teasing is easily in the top three.</p><p>"Anyway, how are we gonna blow this place up? You blew it up last time, right?"</p><p>"Skye, are you seriously asking me how I'm going to collapse this underground temple in on itself?"</p><p>They walk in silence for a few seconds.</p><p>"Alright, point taken. Are you sure I can't get cool powers here?" </p><p>Daisy groans.</p><p>"Skye, you really do not want to do that. All the inhumans would be so mad at you - do you not want to make friends there or something? I can tell you for a fact there is at least one cute, surprisingly good-hearted guy in the bunch."</p><p>"Actually," Skye says, "I've been thinking I'm gonna avoid getting involved with anyone you were involved with. Just on like, principle, y'know? Feel like that's just gonna end badly."</p><p>"Huh," Daisy says. "That's surprisingly mature of you."</p><p>"You know making fun of me is just like making fun of you, right? Like you get that?"</p><p>"You keep telling yourself that," she says, grinning to herself. "Anyway, I was never actually involved with Bobbi, so - "</p><p>Skye shrieks and elbows Daisy in the stomach. It doesn't even remotely hurt.</p><p>"Stop trying to assault me," Daisy says, "We're here."</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>